Band Taking Notes, Points

Bits and pieces . . .

USC’s football team might have had a bad year in 1991, but the Trojan Marching Band never has a bad year.

Indeed, when I think of USC, the band and the fight song come to mind as quickly as the football team. The basketball team, of course, never comes to mind, except maybe the women’s team.

The Trojan band invaded Horton Plaza at noon Friday, marching up Fourth in a procession nearly two blocks long. Notre Dame’s band wakes up echoes, but this one had to settle for awakening derelicts.

When the band settled in at Horton Plaza for a preview of today’s halftime show, it played to an interesting blend of USC alums on holiday, street people, workers on their break and shoppers trying to . . . shop.

The band director assured listeners that the Trojans would beat San Diego State by 10 points.

Aztec fans in the crowd, and there were Aztec fans in the crowd, probably wondered where they could get their money down.

USC’s horse, Traveler, will not be here for the game, apparently because he appears at home only. That being the case, why is he called Traveler?

USC has not won in San Diego since 1917, that being a 3-0 victory over the 21st Infantry of the U.S. Army.

Other Trojan visits to San Diego included an 18-0 loss to the YMCA in 1897, a 32-0 victory over San Diego High School in 1910 and 10-7 and 33-6 losses to the San Diego Navy in 1943 and 1945, respectively.

San Diego State will find it difficult to live up to the legacy of the YMCA and Navy.

News Item: Oklahoma’s quarterback breaks a school record with 341 passing yards.

Reaction: That’s a good half for an SDSU quarterback.

Just Asking: When USC’s cheerleaders were trying to get one part of the Horton Plaza crowd to yell “Go” and the other to respond with “Trojans,” was it me or did anybody else hear a lot of “Aztecs” in the response?

First of all, I never thought I would see the day when SDSU would play USC in football. The UCLA rivalry, one-sided though it has been, was easier to arrange since both are state universities, albeit different systems. USC, excuse me, is a bit more elitist and haughty . . . and has the arrogance to think it should be.

Moreover, given the notion that such a matchup would ever take place, I never dreamed the Aztecs would be the ones with the All-American running back being touted for the Heisman Trophy.

Times change, right Marshall?

If you are not a Trojan fan, it isn’t likely you can name a current USC running back.

Sports Illustrated’s college football issue makes good reading for SDSU fans because three Aztec opponents are featured: USC, a program in trouble; Brigham Young, an insufferable success; and Miami, a dynasty sustained.

Also featured is the Aztecs’ Marshall Faulk . . . bursting upon the scene.

I kept hoping San Diego State’s band would march into Horton Plaza from the other direction.

The band is not as famous, nor is the fight song, but it happens to be a good college band. It has not benefited from the exposure the Trojans have gotten from years of national television, or from being geographically handy whenever a movie producer happens to need a marching band.

You could stand outside the stadium today and have a pretty good idea how the Aztec football team is faring. The more times “Fight On” is played, the closer the Trojan band director will be to beating his 10-point spread.

Unless, of course, we get another of those 52-52 games.

Those things happen around here.

This game does not exactly match Nos. 1 and 2 in the national ranking, but Associated Press has USC 28th in the voting and SDSU 29th in the voting.

The winner will move into the Top 25, where USC thinks it should be and SDSU knows it wants to be. In a sense, both these teams are wanna-bes. Neither can get where it wants to go without a victory.

You heard it right.

San Diego State is a must game for USC.

I saw only one “Go Aztecs” sign in Horton Plaza.

Have apathetic Padre fans contaminated the entire community?

If this game is not sold out by the opening kickoff, you’ll have to excuse me for wondering what it takes around here. This is a more interesting, and historic, matchup than any of the Holiday Bowls.

These teams, after all, may never meet again.

Get your tickets now for the Sept. 21, 1996 visit by Oklahoma.

All the Aztecs have to do is beat USC today, BYU next Thursday and UCLA on Sept. 26 and then breeze through seven Western Athletic Conference opponents to set up a national championship confrontation against Miami on Nov. 28.

That’s all, folks.